Attorney general's office needs through reform

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Law Commission (KHN) has branded the Attorney General's Office as the most secretive component of the legal system in the country and must therefore reform to regain the public's trust.

KHN secretary-general Mardjono Reksodiputro said on Tuesday that the Attorney General's Office had assigned a group of experts from the commission to help it carry out a reform program.

"The office has expressed its willingness to undergo reform. The public must now monitor its progress and decide whether or not it has the intention to implement reform measures," he told a press conference following a discussion, held by the KHN in cooperation with the Partnership for Governance Reform.

The Attorney General's Office is the last institution to have been offered assistance by the Partnership to carry out reform measures, after the Supreme Court and the National Police.

Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, a KHN member, said the reform was aimed at establishing a transparent and accountable Attorney General's Office, one which also involves public participation.

"The reform must target the office's employees, who are resistant to reform," she said.

The reform program includes the recruitment, training and monitoring of the prosecutors, Harkristuti said.

"The office needs to implement the program seriously. Therefore, transparency is a must," she asserted, adding that the reform in the office "will take time".

Antonius Sudjata, chairman of the National Ombudsman, said the office has so far failed to build a good relationship with the public.

"The office managed to respond to only 26 percent of the 122 complaints and reports from the public that we had forwarded to them," said Antonius, who is a former deputy attorney general.

The complaints usually deal with the alleged misconduct or manipulation by the office's employees.

He expected the office not only to reply the complaints, but also to investigate the cases.

Suwarsono, the deputy attorney general of monitoring, said that the prosecutors needed to regroup to discuss the internal reform agenda.

"I cannot force them to comply with the reform. I have no power to do that," he said.

Attorney General M.A. Rachman has also said that the corps of prosecutors he is leading had been in the spotlight recently, as the public was not satisfied with the office's performance in upholding the law.

While agreeing that the office needed to act transparently and independently, Rachman said in its defense, "A less-than-holistic perspective often becomes the standard by which the performance of the office is assessed."

Rachman himself was reported to the police by the Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN) for allegedly concealing his wealth. It remains unclear how far the police have investigated the report.